SIENA, ITALY, 27 August
2003The 33rd Siena Jazz Festival in late July and early
August was sponsored by, among others, the town of Siena, the Province
of Siena, the Region of Tuscany and the Monte Dei Paschi Di Siena
bank, which was founded in 1472, before Columbus discovered bebop. And
one hot afternoon, a student saxophonist on the ramparts of the 14th
century Fortezza Medicea was practicing Charlie Parker's "Billie's
Bounce," which was written before Time magazine
discovered Thelonious Monk. Tradition is alive and well in Italy.

The Siena festivalactually more of a seminarpresented
evening concerts in medieval squares of this weathered city, in a lush
garden with a spectacular view of the Torre del Mangia; and in the
Enoteca, an old-brick inside-outside vintage-wine cellar in the
Fortezza. There were also cute little concerts on discreet squares in
picturesque neighboring villages such as Serre di Rapolano and
Buonconvento.

Some 230 studentsmostly Italian, all of
whom passed auditions performed in the evenings with and/or
supervised by their Italian teachers. The teachers also performed with
each other. The Siena Jazz Association maintains a 1000 square meter
teaching facility comprised of 20 classrooms, a library and a modern,
air-conditioned sound archive with over 20,000 discs and tapes and
counting. Courses included the archive's scholarly curator Francesco
Martinelli teaching the history of jazz, and instrumental and group
workshops were conducted by masters such as Claudio Fasoli, Giancarlo
Schiaffini and Marco Tamburini, who are well known in Italy.

Jazzistically speaking, the larger European countries are like
weather maps in their own national newspapers. The soundings are
artificially cut off by frontiers. Citizens are not thought to be
interested in what happens next door. Germany, France and Britain, for
example, each have their own fertile environment, but you are unlikely
to hear, or even hear of, their fine players abroad. The peninsula of
Italy is more obviously isolated by the Mediterranean Sea and the
Alps.

For the past ten years or so, Italy has been arguably
the strongest jazz nation in Europe. One continues to discover major
players who are almost unknown anywhere else. Saxophonist Fabio
Petretti from Bologna, for example, was particularly impressive in the
lovely courtyard of the Azienda Agricola in the 18th century hamlet of
Montestiglia.

Although jazz is certainly historically
American, its most current developments are no longer any one nation's
monopoly. (Due to faulty inter-continental communication, this may be
read askance by some.) The respected veteran bassist and teacher Furio
Di Castri has put it this way: "We absorbed jazz like a secret
passion; from records and the radio but also from films by Sidney
Lumet, Polanski and Cassavetes, or from books by Kerouac. In this way
we formed a 'sound,' an idea of music which did not differentiate
Coltrane from Franco D'Andrea, or Mingus from Nunzio Rotondo. Jazz was
just one thing. It was 'the thing,' beyond styles, races or nations."

Nevertheless, it has also been said that the students in
Siena bond more closely and learn more being instructed in their
native language than in the workshop program offered in English by
teachers from Boston's Berklee School of Music at the competing, much
larger, Umbria Jazz
Festival in Perugia. Either way, Italy continues to produce many
able young players in an assortment of styles who improvise with
sensitivity and emotion as well as book knowledge and chops. It is
particularly blessed with subtle, softly hard-swinging post-Jack
DeJohnette drummers such as Massimo Manzi, Walter Paoli and Joao
Antunes, a 23-year old student from Portugal.

According to
Franco Caroni, President of the Siena Jazz Association: "It is
not surprising that such persons, after having acquired over 20 years
experience at the various courses of Siena, now occupy many of the
'School of Jazz' conservatory teaching posts in various Italian state
musical institutes." However, unlike France, there is still no
official jazz degree in Italian conservatories, although Martinelli is
hopeful that the Siena Symposium will become "the first jazz part
of the university system, like some existing colleges focus on social
and economic sciences. This process has officially started with
meeting with the Ministry of Education."

The audiences
in Siena were small and knowledgeable; mostly scholars, musicians,
students, friends and inquisitive natives. They were respectful,
intelligent, enthusiastic listeners and it was a pleasure to be
amongst them. Admission was free of charge and there were no policemen
in sight, nor need for them. The beverage of choice was water.
Delicious Prosciutto sandwiches were passed around at midnight.

In
general, Tuscan produce is in need of no promotion. The late jazz
critic Paul Haines could have been talking about the music as well as
the food when he wrote: "In Siena, be sure to save room for the
appetizers."

Mike Zwerin
has been jazz and rock critic for the International Herald Tribune for
the last twenty years. He was also the European correspondent for The
Village Voice. Zwerin is currently writing a book called "Parisian
Jazz Affair" for Yale University Press and he is the jazz editor
of Culturekiosque.com.